Palestinians Question Blair Role as UN Statehood Bid Stalls

Palestinian leaders are questioning
the role of former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair as a peace
negotiator, after their effort to win statehood at the United
Nations was put on hold.

Blair, who has mediated between Israelis and Palestinians
on behalf of the so-called Quartet, has taken “very aggressive
positions against the Palestinians,” Palestinian lawmaker
Bassam Salhi said in an interview today. “He has lost his
credibility as a broker and mediator.”

Nabil Shaath, the chief Palestinian negotiator, last week
told reporters that Blair “sounds like an Israeli diplomat
sometimes,” according to the New York Times. Riyad al-Maliki,
the Palestinian foreign minister, said at a press conference in
Ramallah today that he and colleagues are “looking into his
actions and his role, and when the time comes we will issue our
opinion.” He said Palestinians haven’t made an official request
for Blair to be replaced.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas presented his
case for recognition of Palestine as the UN’s 194th member state
at the General Assembly on Sept. 23. It is due to be discussed
by an admissions committee of the Security Council tomorrow, the
start of a process that could take weeks. The U.S. has said it
will veto any Security Council vote on Palestinian statehood.

Blair, representing the Quartet of the U.S., UN, European
Union and Russia, has pushed a proposal for immediate resumption
of peace talks leading to a final settlement within a year. It
was initially backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rejected by Abbas.

‘Encouraging Elements’

There are “encouraging elements” in the Quartet’s plan,
Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation
Organization’s executive committee, told reporters in Ramallah
today. Its success would depend on Israel making commitments
including a freeze on settlement-building in occupied
territories, he said.

Israel’s decision to end a 10-month moratorium on
settlement construction in October last year led to the collapse
of talks that began the previous month. An Israeli Interior
Ministry committee this week approved construction of 1,100 new
homes in east Jerusalem, a territory captured by the Israeli
army in the 1967 war and seen by Palestinians as the capital of
their future state.